Susan Apollon says miracles do not happen by coincidence – we are designed for them. Here’s what you can do to invite those moments of divine magnitude into your life.

Albert Einstein once said of miracles: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Intuitive psychologist and author Susan Apollon agrees, and has spent more than two decades backing up this hypothesis by studying the nature of miracles and the conditions under which they occur. Her conclusion? Everyone can receive these natural gifts because we are all spiritually connected to God, Source, Allah or whatever a person chooses to call this wellspring of goodness.

Apollon’s book, Touched by the Extraordinary, Book Two: Healing Stories of Love, Loss and Hope, is a collection of real-life occurrences – including messages sent from loved ones who’ve passed on, angel visitations and signs – that can be defined only as the stuff of miracles.

Apollon described her clients’ experiences as “blessings that made them feel safe, holy, divine, not alone, protected and taken care of – and frequently, just made them smile.” She said studies in Quantum Physics suggest anyone with the right mindset can live a life rich in miracles from the small to the momentous. You simply have to foster your ability to invite them in.

Here are a few suggestions and insights that will prepare you to receive your own miracles:
• Give yourself permission to be open to extraordinary experiences. “As a psychologist who has sat with patients who have shared countless wondrous stories of small and large miraculous events in their lives, I have come to recognize the ability to experience miracles is often dependent on whether or not you choose to allow for the possibility of miracles in your life,” Apollon wrote. Accept you will allow the universe to do its good and it will respond accordingly.

• Rediscover your spirituality. Take time to connect with your own soul and with the Source by returning to – or visiting for the first time prayer, ritual and faith. Learn to meditate while breathing deeply or do yoga. Most of all, try to reach a point at which you feel your connection to the universe and everything in it.

• Commit to making significant changes in negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs. This is especially important for a person suffering an illness because “anxiety and desperation have a strong tendency to block your ability to heal.” Apollon said to change this stone-set pattern we must always be aware of what we are feeling and then consciously change our thoughts, replacing negative or disturbing images with positive and empowering ones.

• Keep a synchronicity journal. Synchronicity is the flow of “meaningful coincidences” that indicate life, all life, is connected in a complex web of psychic moments, signs and symbols, and shivers of spiritual connectedness. The sheer volume of these subtle miracles that happen in so many different lives adds up to powerful evidence of “something greater.” “The numbers,” Apollon said, “will be far greater than you may have imagined.”

• Write your intentions down. In detail, record on paper with joyful enthusiasm exactly what you desire from the universe – daily. Expect good things to be placed in your path and they will come – be it a spiritual visit from a passed loved one, a new chance in a waning relationship or a miraculous recovery.

Above all, keeping your heart brimming full of love and compassion is the most important factor needed in the creation of miracles. If we all are somehow connected together, this simple intention is the healing balm needed to rescue Earth and all souls upon it. What better way to begin fresh in the New Year than with a new faith-based attitude that risks little sorrow and at most promises unprecedented hope and joy?

Apollon asserted, “I think we’re all hungry for that, even diehard skeptics. Especially diehard skeptics. My overarching message is life itself is extraordinary – miraculous! And all it takes to realize that is to open your eyes and see the amazing things that surround us all, every day.”

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About the author:

As a psychologist and an author, Susan Apollon empowers and heals the body, mind and soul; as an educator, she informs; as a speaker, she inspires and touches the heart. For more than 25 years, Apollon has been in private practice in Yardley, Penn., evaluating and counseling adults, families and children who are dealing with difficult life situations similar to what she has personally experienced, researched and written about, including cancer, other health issues, trauma and grief. Apollon comes from a family of physicians, which includes her husband, father, brothers, aunt and uncles, daughter and cousins. Healing and medicine are a part of her lineage. She integrates the gifts and challenges of having lived more than 65 years with the joy and satisfaction of being married for more than 44 years to her husband, Warren, a practicing orthodontist, along with the role of being mom to her two adult children, Rebecca, an emergency medicine physician, and David, a management consultant.